Citizenship
CITIZENSHIP Your citizenship determines your starting Networking skill and faction Rep. For Descendant and Pioneer characters, it is also what determines your Education and Home Habitat choices. Each Faction, and by extension anyone that is a Citizen of that faction, also grants a Diplomacy Rating, which modifies your Networking and Rep for the given faction. A Unionist character with a Networking: Autonomist skill of 50 will get a -10 modifier to their target number when dealing with Mutualists, as the relationship with that faction is Strained. Your chosen faction's diplomatic relations may also have other effects. For example, if you enter the space of a faction that has a negative relationship with your own, you might be kept under surveillance, or be forced to keep an XP corder in your mesh inserts. Factions that are hostile to yours will be a direct danger, as they might outright arrest you, or simply open fire. * Allied: Has the same rights as with your own faction. * Neutral: No Modifier * Strained: -10 Modifier * Negative: -20 Modifier * Hostile: -30 Modifier The Autonomists: The Unionist Pluralities History The Union of Workers' Pluralities, or the Union for short, is the major Autonomist faction in the sectors. What started as a political experiment soon gained a wide following among the disenfranchised lower classes. With the influx of infugees after Rho, its power grew exponentially. Governance Upon reaching the age of majority, Unionists agree to a literal social contract, which grants citizenship and free access to community fabbers and most services. Unionists loathe the monopolistic economic policies of the Exchange and Firewall, and so there is no central planning. Instead, a portion of a citizen’s economic productivity is tithed to social projects of their choosing, commonly ones such as research initiatives, mental health programs, defense, public resleeving facilities, mining operations, and habitat construction. Anyone able to garner enough votes to have their project approved by the habitats’ parliament (referred to as a Plurality) can start a social project and compete for public funding. Projects are owned by the community, and profits are disposed of by the Plurality. Regulatory matters are handled by committees of randomly elected citizens. Diplomacy As a Unionist, you will find few allies beyond your own faction. Freeholders can in many ways be described as standing on the opposite side of the political spectrum, and the fact that misinformed outsiders have bundled the two factions together doesn't abate that. Autarchists are unreliable by their very nature, and are always hard to make sweeping statements about, but at the very least they don't dislike Unionists more than anyone else. The Exchange sees you as their most direct challenger, but generally doesn't take direct action; it knows that the loss-and-gain calculation of open conflict with the Union doesn't look very good. As such, you can generally travel freely in their space, but you will most certainly be kept under surveillence. Firewall has been known to deal with a few Union polities in the past, as many of the more productive belt mining operations near their sectors are under Union control. They tend to keep a cordial stance but will, as always, retaliate with full force if challenged. The most complicated relationship is certainly that with Exogenesis. On the surface, many of the techno-progressive and rights-oriented views of the Union coincide with Exogenesis. However, in recent decades several large conflicts over AI rights have damaged relations. The Union believes that the way to prosperity lies with human labour, not with AI. * Autarchists - Neutral * Freeholders – Strained * Exchange (general) – Negative * Atlas-Nexus - Neutral * Khepri – Hostile * Jin Dai - Strained * Exogenesis – Strained * Firewall - Neutral * Networking Skills: 50 Networking: Autonomists, 25 Networking: Firewall * Rep Bonuses: 35 @-rep, 15 i-Rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Candidate: Trial, Operation: Industrial, Outpost: Belt, Spacecraft: Speck, Spaceworld: Hub, Spaceworld: Orbital * Descendant and Pioneer Education: The Autonomists: The Autarchist Confederations History The Autarchist movement is in many a direct descendant of the original Fringer movement. Its power base lies in the oldest parts of the sectors, where all sorts of adventurers, fortune-seekers, criminals and political exiles made their home starting in the 3rd millenia. Since Rho, the Autarchist influence has been steadily waning, as many habitats have re-aligned themselves with the Union or been coerced into submission by the Exchange or Firewall. Yet the Autarchist movement survives, and due to the mounting pressure from other factions, it has in the last few decades been forced to become more organized and outward-looking. Inter-habitat Autarchist confederations are these days commonplace, although their shaky foundations and constantly shifting members make them hard to map. Governance Autarchist stations are new economies, where private property has been abolished above the level of personal possessions. There are no laws and no one to watch over what you do—reputation networks encourage positive behavior and anti-social acts are likely to draw a response from locals or even the entire populace, with disputes handled through ad hoc community conflict resolution. The mesh and various networking tools are used extensively to strive for group consensus decision-making in realtime. AIs and drones are relied on for most mundane and demeaning tasks. Various self-organized collectives take on different tasks and services that are important to a habitat’s community, including everything from communications and space traffic control to backup and resleeving services. Participatory militias organize collective defense against external threats. However, there are many variations and permutations on how things are organized in Autarchist habitats, as everything is fine-tuned at the local level by whomever is involved. Diplomacy The Autarchist movement has few friends and even fewer allies. The Unionists will treat you as if they were your older and more enlightened siblings. Mutualists tend to distrust you, as the two movements share a longstanding disagreement on the the notion of legally binding contracts. The Exchange will happily blame you for all of their troubles, even though everyone knows that it's the Union that really haunts them. Firewall is openly hostile, as you are the antithesis of their idea of strict hierarchies and rigid social order. Extreme caution is advised for anyone travelling through Firewall space, as there have been several incidents where Autarchists have been arrested and put through show trials for terrorist acts. Only with Exogenesis can you expect a less a somewhat warmer reception, as they tend to look favourably on the long history of Autarchist habitats acting as a safe harbor for AIs and hypercorp defectors. * Freeholders – Strained * Unionists - Neutral * Exchange (general) – Strained * Atlas-Nexus - Neutral * Jin Dai - Neutral * Exogenesis – Neutral * Firewall – Hostile * Networking Skills: 40 Networking: Autonomists, 25 Networking: Criminals, 10 Networking: Exogenesis * Rep Bonuses: 30 @-Rep, 20 G-Rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Operation: Industrial, Operation: Shelter, Outpost: Belt, Outpost: Deep Space, Spacecraft: Scumbarge, Spacecraft: Speck, Spaceworld: Orbital * Descendant and Pioneer Education: The Autonomists: The Freehold Consortium History The Freehold Consortium is the smallest faction in the Sectors, but can punch above their weight more than perhaps any other faction. Their ideology, coloquially know as Mutualism, walks the thin line between Core and Frontier ideologies, and means that they have dealings with almost every other faction. Since the very beginning of Frontier colonization, it has been a focal point for idealists looking to build Utopia, but the Consortium sprung from a different group; industrious fortune-seekers that were trying to escape rigid ideologies and interfering governments. Since Rho, the Mutualist influence in the Sectors has lessed somewhat, with many Hypercorps buyouts of Consortium operations. On the other hand, many Hypercorps are in fact Mutualist in origin and maintain close ties to the Freeholds. Governance Mutualists believe in an economic free market with the absence of a binding legal system, so that all relations and transactions are based on individual contracts agreed on by all parties involved or affected. Contrary to other Autonomist ideologies, Mutualists very much support private property and personal economic wealth; Mutualist-owned corporations actively participate in the Sectors’ hypercorp economy. Many of these corporations are worker-owned cooperatives, with workplace councils in local offices and an elected cooperative management. Others have a more traditional structure with shareholder, an executive board and salaried employees. This puts the Consortium in the remarkable position where they interact heavily with both the hypercorps and other autonomists. In the Freeholds, law and security, like everything else, are contracted services. When entering a Mutualist habitat, you purchase defense insurance from a local contractor such as Atlas-Nexus, who maintains automated drones and freelancers throughout the station who can come to your aid if threatened. Likewise, the only law that exists is what’s put into writing between two contracted parties. In case of disputes, both parties resort to a pre-agreed legal contractor to settle the matter. Diplomacy Beyond business, the Freeholds don't have very much in common with other Autonomists, something that is revealed through their suspicious attitude toward Consortium members. Most hypercorps, on the other hand, are just as happy to trade with Mutualists as they are with their other Exchange members. There are even some that will even treat you as if you were one of their own citizens, something that goes to show how vague the line between corporates and mutualists sometimes can be. The Consortium's relationship with Exogenesis has always been one of mutual distrust; the Exogen love for open source information and AI personhood has made any fruitful relationship impossible. Firewall tends to have a hard time distinguishing Freeholders from regular corporates, and will generally treat you with respect. * Autarchists - Strained * Unionists - Strained * Exchange (general) – Neutral * Atlas-Nexus - Allied * Exogenesis - Negative * Firewall – Neutral * Networking Bonuses: 35 Networking: Autonomists, 30 Networking: Hypercorps, 10 Networking: Firewall * Rep Bonuse: 30 @-rep, 20 C-rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Operation: Industrial, Outpost: Belt, Spacecraft: Speck, Spaceworld: Hub, Spaceworld: Orbital * Descendant and Pioneer Education: The Exchange: Caldwell Industries History The industrial giant Caldwell is a powerhouse in the mining and energy production markets and also boasts a remarkable presence in industrial equipment manufacturing. It has adapted quickly to the new post-Rho economic environments and reputation-based systems, thanks partly to its committed social responsibility. Often considered insular and close-minded, its internal communal and protective mindset is a strong contrast to its manipulative and monopolist business attitude. Governance By mere habitat-count, Caldwell is one of the largest hypercorps in existence. They are active in virtually every sector, and tend to concentrate in clusters of smaller habitats, particularly in belts and other areas with high resource concentrations. Caldwell has a strictly hierarchical corporate structure, but offer wider and deeper social services to their citizens than most other hypercorps. Their employees are generally free to study, travel, and to seek employment in other habitats. Some degree of political freedom is also granted, as citizens are organized into employee organizations, that has resonsibility for many day-to-day habitat decisions. Caldwell is also one of the few hypercorps to have its own armed forces, something that came about after a high-level contracting disagreement with Jin Dai a few decades back. Caldwell prefers to have its mining done by AIs, and indentureship is not widely practices. This means that, despite its economic power and vast territories, Caldwell is relatively slim population-wise. Caldwell employees are notedly some of the most loyal among the hypercorps, and defections and rebellions are virtually unheard of. Diplomacy Caldwell has since its early days tried to make its employees feel at home within the corporate structure, something that the Union has constantly tried to undermine. There were several armed conflict in the early decades between Union and Caldwell supporters in various industrial habitats. The relationship has stabilized somewhat since, but there is no love lost between the two. Caldwell supplies many hypercorps with raw materials and has good standings with most of the Exchange, although some take issue with its creative business practices, particularly the Khepri Group. Due to Caldwell's extensive use of AI labor, Exogenesis frequently tries to raid its remote operations and Caldwell is carrying out extensive lobbying activities with other factions to take action against the Exogen threat. * Autarchists – Strained * Freeholders - Neutral * Unionists – Negative * Exchange (general) – Neutral * Khepri – Negative * Exogenesis – Hostile * Firewall – Neutral * Networking Bonuses: 50 Networking: Hypercorps, 25 Networking: Firewall * Rep Bonuses: 40 C-rep, 10 i-rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Operation: Industrial, Outpost: Belt, Spaceworld: Eden, Spaceworld: Orbital * Descendant and Pioneer Education: The Exchange: The Khepri Group History The destruction of the Core meant that many frontier investors and proprietors were gone. Large numbers of colonies suddenly found themselves ownerless, and some of these soon organized themselves into what would become the Khepri Group. While quickly emerging as one of the market leaders in prospecting and terraforming, it is also the first hypercorp to successfully have turned far frontier exploitation into a business. Due to its recent discovery of some very resource rich belts and moons, Khepri has managed to gained a significant edge over many of its competitors. The incredible cost-effectiveness of Khepri material production is made possible by their use of highly mobile blast mining operations that quickly strip belts and moons of easily accessible materials before moving on. This has allowed Khepri to simply flood material markets and dump prices, while still turning a handsome profit. Governance The Khepri Group is seen as a rising star among the Exchange, but others claim that its wealth is built off the backs of desperate infugees. Khepri has one of the largest percentages of indentured labor out of any hypercorp, and it is not uncommon that as many as 95% of the workforce at Khepri mining operations and habitat construction sites are indentures. Their habitats run very strict security routines, and the Group has both a private army and one of the largest navies in the Sectors. In fact, the number of security staffers vastly outnumber the civilian citizens, as indentures do most of the manual work. Khepri Group industrial habitats are entirely old economies where all transactions are made with cred and attempts at circumventing the official economy are dealt with harshly. The Khepri homeworlds tend to be mixed economies where modest rep-based markets flourish, although participation is limited to only citizens. Diplomacy Khepri's ability to undercut Union rates for basic materials has led to a full blown trade war. Moreover, the Union makes the absurd claim that indentureship is a form of slavery. In reality, all Khepri contractors sign on out of their own volition. Further, almost all contractors used to be infugees who, if Khepri hadn't offered them employment, would have been stuck in their software state. In fact, a recent independent study showed that many contractors that have been able to pay off their debt to the hypercorp have decided to stay with Khepri. As the Caldwell giant crumbles under the pressure of its own weight, it has become increasingly aggressive in its corporate espionage against Khepri. The Group has responded with increased security procedures in its administrative and financial departments in order to prevent any new infiltration attempts. Exogenesis opposes indentureship, but have historically been more interested in going after Caldwell's AI abuses, and so an uneasy non-agression pact has developed based on the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend“. Firewall seems to have taken the side of Caldwell, as they repeatedly contract them for material deliveries, while also taking issue with Khepri's military fleet expansions. The reclaimer section within Firewall does what it can to keep relations sour, as this club of paranoid and reactionary Earth-nostalgics is convinced that humanity's expansion into the far frontier will trigger some sort of extraterrestrial invasion. * Autarchists – Strained * Freeholders – Neutral * Unionists - Hostile * Exchange (general) – Neutral * Caldwell Industries - Negative * Exogenesis - Neutral * Firewall – Strained * Networking Skills: 50 Networking: Hypercorps, 25 Networking: Exogenesis * Rep Bonuses: 40 C-rep, 10 W-rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Candidate: Ongoing, Operation: Industrial, Outpost: Belt, Spacecraft: Speck, Spaceworld: Orbital * Descendant and Pioneer Education: The Exchange: Jin Dai Corporation History The Jin Dai Corporation is a private military contractor that has had a presence in the Sectors since long before Rho. It earned a particularly bad name in some circles through its brutal suppression of refugee populations among various habitats in the aftermath of the catastrophe. In 78 AR, an internal power struggle ended with a total realignment of corporate politics. While Jin Dai had previously been known for its unrelenting terror tactics and unscrupulous mercenaries, employee protocols were significantly tightened and many of the most notorious officers were removed. In habitats where their presence was allowed, Vatgrown pod troopers and AI-operated synthframes also came to replace most of the regular personnel. Governance Jin Dai is not a realty hypercorp; it owns precious few habitats and doesn't claim any territory. Its presence can be felt almost everywhere in the sectors however, as it is by far the largest private security contractor. Training facilities and armament depots do exist, but the exact number and location of these habitats have successfully been kept a corporate secret. The only publicly known habitat is their HQ; the Eden-class Eternity station in sector 7. Jin Dai employees carry mandatory XP corders that log all their activities. Standard deployment cycles last for 2 years, whereupon log reviews are carried out. During the review period Jin Dai workers are technically unemployed, although they retain their citizenship. Reviews usually last for between two weeks to a month, depending on the distance from the habitat of deployment to Eternity station. If records are approved employees are almost always re-deployed. Employees who fail their review are usually given a grace period of a few months, depending on rank, and are then stripped of their citizenship. Jin Dai operates with a two-tier economy. While on the one hand only accepting cred as payment for contracts, Jin Dai on the other provides rep-based access to services and fabbers internally. This makes Eternity station the primary destination for citizens on extended leave, something which over time has led to an insular and highly distinctive internal corporate culture. Diplomacy Jin Dai maintains a strict political neutrality, offering its services to literally anyone that is able to pay for them. This has led to some notable cases where contracts that have expired during ongoing conflicts have been immediately followed by contracts with the opposing side. This has caused a rift between Jin Dai and those members of the Exchange that expect “loyalty”. For Jin Dai's part, any actor's failure to outbid their enemy is their own fault, and the inability of some members of the Exchange to understand basic economics is simply baffling. Since the birth of Atlas-Nexus, Jin Dai's main competitor in most markets, the Exchange as a whole has started to turn away from Jin Dai, although this hasn't hurt business nearly as much as it would seem, as the increase in contracts from Exogenesis, Autonomists and independents have more than covered the losses. Jin Dai has at this point been contracted in many conflicts where the main opposition has come from Atlas-Nexus. This has resulted in a bitter rivalry that runs much deeper than just business calculations, to the point where it permeates the entire organization. Private contracting is by its very nature something that Firewall dissaproves of, but more significant for the relationship with Firewall is their irrational fear of militarized transhumans, particularly AIs, which continues to cause tension in areas where both sides are present. * Autarchists - Neutral * Freeholders - Neutral * Unionists - Strained * Exchange (general) - Strained * Atlas-Nexus - Negative * Exogenesis - Neutral * Firewall - Negative * Networking Skills: 35 Networking: Hypercorps, 20 Networking: Autonomists, 20 Networking: Exogenesis * Rep Bonuses: 20 C-rep, 15 @-rep, 15 W-rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Candidate: Any, Operation: Extraction, Outpost: Belt, Spacecraft: Scumbarge, Spaceworld: Any * Descendant and Pioneer Education: The Exchange: Atlas-Nexus History Atlas Dash was a military contractor that survived Rho with a decimated command structure and most of its assets lost in the Core. As it struggled to regain its bearing in the decades following Rho, a looming buyout from Jin Dai was evaded at the last minute by an unlikely merger offer: The Freehold-based weapon systems manufacturer Nexusworks. The new hypercorp Atlas-Nexus soon became an prosperous venture, able to produce its own weapons, frames, vehicles and drones as well as provide well-trained and highly disciplined egos. From its very beginning, Atlas-Nexus capitalized on the Exchange's dissatisfaction with Jin Dai's unreliability and made their standard contracts include a non-interference clause in the event of conflicts extending beyond the duration of their involvement. This made them an imminently popular choice with many hypercorps. While Nexusworks brought in the infrastructure to produce equipment, the main weakness of the merger was their low number of combat-ready egos. The solution was found in a partnership with the Lagrange hypercorp which resulted in the now-infamous Lost Generation; a series of accelerated childhood egos that were raised in an extreme time dilation simulspace. While the project was terminated prematurely, enough egos made it through to provide Atlas-Nexus with troopers to meet the high demand of the early years. Most of the lost have since been retired, replaced mostly by former infugees put through military training. In a mere few decades Atlas-Nexus has become the second largest contractor in the sectors, although it still operates in the shadow of Jin Dai. Governance Atlas-Nexus is very much a mutualist hypercorp; their citizenry consists not only of armies of soldiers but also armies of bureaucrats and lawyers. Their contracts are incredibly complex, as is their internal hierarchy. The term participant is preferred over citizen or employee, and rights and obligations only extend as far as an ego's contract. Although ex-participants are welcomed in Atlas-Nexus habitats and offices, as long as they parted on good terms, they are legally no different from any other alien. With that said, there is no shortage of work in Atlas-Nexus, as there are always contracts to be drafted, combat frames to be operated, and equipment to be manufactured. Participation can also be bought; with cred, information, forebearance of labour, or anything else that the recruitment office values. This allows retirees to continue to live as Atlas-Nexus participants; as long as they can afford to keep renewing their participation. Apart from its industrial base, training facilities and headquarters –the Nexus; a torus-class station– located in a dense cluster of systems in sector 30, Atlas-Nexus keeps no habitats of its own. It mainly operates in Exchange space, but also contracts to other factions as long as the conflict doesn't involve any hypercorps. Atlas-Nexus troopers are known for their superior combat frames and high quality equipment, but also for how meticulously they execute their orders. They strive to carry out their contract to the letter, always reluctant to deviate from the mission. This can in chaotic combat situation sometimes cause them to become rigid and unresponsive, but it also means that they are extremely good at complex operations that require detalied planning and coordination, such as infiltrations, assassinations and abductions. Atlas-Nexus operates within the new economy. Civilian Atlas-Nexus particupants in foreign habitats always have free access to basic goods and services; even if those are not available to the citizens of the polity that controlls it. This is a criteria for Atlas-Nexus to set up office in the habitat to begin with. Security participants are normally only paid at the end of a contract; with contracts being signed on a mission-to-mission basis. Payment usually comes in the form a specified time of uncontracted participation as well as a rep boost, which, due to Atlas-Nexus' almost universally good standing, is one of the most valuable reps available. Diplomacy Atlas-Nexus is best described as the favorite of the Exchange. Several highly successful contracts against unruly populations has put them in a unique position where they are loved by virtually every executive in every hypercorp, barring of course the arrogant Jin Dai. As the most successful mutualist hypercorp, Atlas-Nexus is held up as the shining example of Mutualist ideology, and is a welcomed guest in the Freeholds. Because of Jin Dai's history of slaughtering unarmed refugees, the Union often prefers to deal with Atlas-Nexus, despite its clear alignment with the Exchange. Jin Dai has a larger presence in Exogenesis space, but Atlas-Nexus has conquering market shares there too. Firewall has a long memory; long enough to still remember the tragedy that was the Lost generation. While Atlas-Nexus has issues a formal apology for their involvement in the incident and publicly denounced the Lagrange corporation, this sadly hasn't warmed up relations with the Junta. Some would say that they are simply just fearful of Atlas-Nexus' sophisticated arsenal. * Autarchists - Neutral * Freeholders - Allied * Unionists - Neutral * Exchange (general) - Allied * Jin Dai - Negative * Exogenesis - Neutral * Firewall - Strained * Networking Skills: 40 Networking: Hypercorps, 20 Networking: Autonomists, 15 Networking: Exogenesis * Rep Bonuse: 30 C-rep, 10 @-rep, 10 W-rep * Descendant and Pioneer Home Habitat: Candidate: Any, Operation: Extraction, Outpost: Belt, Spacecraft: Scumbarge, Spaceworld: Any * Descendant and Pioneer Education: